Route 51

Our annual Garden Show, with tips for growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees in northern Wisconsin’s often severe and unforgiving climate. Glen Moberg welcomes back Nick Schultz , who writes the Perpetual Gardener Column for the Portage County Gazette; and Lynn Caine, an orchard owner who sits on the Wisconsin Master Gardener Association Board, and who served for several years as summer horticulturist for Portage County UW Extension.

It's been 40 years since the first Hmong immigrants came to central Wisconsin. Today on Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 we look ahead to the next 40 years with Kham Tong Yang, of the Hmong American Center, Chungsou Her, owner of the new Wausau World Market, Mao Khang of the Women’s Community, and Marathon County Administrator Brad Karger..

Coming up this week on Route 51 we'll be talking about two major initiatives to drive economic development in Portage County, The New ERA and Create Portage County. Rick Reyer will be sitting in for Glen Moberg. Our guests will be Todd Kukkahn, Executive Director of the Portage County Business Council; Kayla Romblaski, President of Ignite Leadership Network of Portage County; and Greg Wright, Executive Director of Create Portage County.

This Thursday, April 21st at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 features the cultural observations of two visiting students from Tunisia, who are working as Wisconsin Public Radio interns at our studios in Wausau. Host Glen Moberg will moderate a discussion with Waed Guesmi, Tasmani Daghari and Zeineb Nalouti, who will be joined by Dr. Edgar Francis, associate professor of Middle Eastern History at UW-Stevens Point. The program will look at the fledgling democracy in Tunisia, site of the first Arab Spring rebellion, and the rhetoric directed against Muslim immigrants in the current Presidential campaign. Guesmi attended recent political rallies by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in central Wisconsin.

This Thursday, April 14th at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 analyzes a newly released scientific study of the effects of high capacity wells on groundwater and the Little Plover River in the central sands region of Wisconsin. Host Glen Moberg will moderate a panel discussion with George Kraft, hydrologist with UW Extension in Stevens Point; Tamas Houlihan, executive director of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association; Scott Krug, Republican Party Assemblyman from the Town of Rome; and Katrina Shankland, Democratic Party Assemblywoman from Stevens Point. The program will also feature comments from UW Extension geologist Ken Bradbury, the lead researcher for the new study.

This Thursday, April 7th at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 features a discussion of the April 5th Wisconsin primary election by Democratic Party analyst, Christine Bremer Muggli and Republican Party analyst, Kevin Hermening , both of Wausau. Host Glen Moberg will ask Muggli and Hermening about the implications of the election results, and the issues that motivated voters in North Central Wisconsin.

This Thursday, March 31st at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 will broadcast Monday evening’s debate between Wausau mayoral candidates Robert Mielke and Jay Kronenwetter. The combined media event was moderated by Glen Moberg of Wisconsin Public Radio, with questions posed by Nora Hertel of the Wausau Daily Herald, Mark McPherson of WAOW-TV, and Sean Caldwell of WSAW-TV. The debate took place before a live audience in the James F. Veninga Theater at the UW Center for Civic Engagement on the UW-Marathon County campus in Wausau. The election is next Tuesday, April 5th.

This Thursday, March 17th at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 looks at the role citizen scientists can play in monitoring the health of Wisconsin’s lakes and waterways, and our changing migratory bird patterns. Host Glen Moberg will moderate a discussion with Eric Olson, Director of UW Extension’s Lake program based in Stevens Point; Paul Skawinski, Citzens Lake Monitoring Network Educator with the University of Wisconsin Extension; and Dan Belter, Marathon County Breeding Bird Atlas coordinator, and member of the Wisconsin Society of Ornithology.

This Thursday, March 10th at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 features Walter Wick, whose “I Spy” books and visual puzzle art is the subject of an exhibit at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau. Our guests will include: Wick; Woodson Art Museum Director, Kathy Kelsey Foley; the museum’s Curator of Education, Catie Anderson; and NPR Puzzlemaster, Will Shortz, who worked with Wick at Games Magazine, and who is now the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. The Woodson Art Museum is one of only seven art museums in the country to be a finalist for the 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Service.

This Thursday, February 25th at 10 am, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51 focuses on the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and the political battle over his replacement. Host Glen Moberg will interview constitutional law expert John Blakeman, political science chair at UW-Stevens Point, and the co-author of The Supreme Court and the New Federalism: From the Rehnquist to the Roberts Court.